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DGT Theory Topic 1, Definitions and Road Use: a Visual Summary

Topic 1 of the Spanish DGT theory test: vehicle types, parts of the road, lanes, hard shoulder, following distances, speed limits and priority — with diagrams, explained numbers, trick questions and a mini quiz.

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Skilyapp Team

October 17, 2026

16 min read
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Topic 1 is the longest in the Spanish DGT syllabus and the foundation for everything else. It defines each type of vehicle and each part of the road, then sets out which lane to use, who rides on the hard shoulder, what gap to leave, how fast you may go and who goes first at a junction. A lot of exam questions hinge on a single word from this topic: "light", "travesía", "unmarked".

Here is the topic summarised section by section, with a diagram for each situation, the most-asked numbers explained, the usual trick answers and a short quiz with real DGT questions. Spanish terms are shown in grey on the cards, because that is how you will meet them in the course and on Spanish road signs.

120 · 90
Car outside built-up areas (km/h)

120 on motorways and dual carriageways (autopista, autovía), 90 on ordinary roads. 100 only on ordinary roads with physically separated directions and a sign allowing it.

In the test: the hard shoulder no longer matters: with or without a 1.5 m shoulder, the limit is 90.

50 · 30 · 20
Car in town (km/h)

50 on through-roads and streets with two or more lanes each way, 30 with one lane each way, 20 where road and pavement share one level.

In the test: a single-lane-each-way street with no signs: the answer is 30, not 50.

0 km/h
Extra for overtaking

The old "+20 to overtake" is gone. The road's limit also applies while you overtake.

In the test: "110 to overtake on a 90 road" is always wrong.

60 · half
Minimum speed

60 km/h for everyone on motorways and dual carriageways. On other roads, half of your vehicle's maximum.

In the test: on a motorway it is not half of 120: it is 60.

What topic 1 covers

Part What the exam asks
Vehicles and road users Car, moped, motorcycle, e-scooter, quadricycle, trailer; who counts as a driver and who as a pedestrian
The road Carriageway, hard shoulder, traffic islands, roundabouts; urban roads, through-roads, motorways, dual carriageways, ordinary roads
Lanes Right-hand lane, lane of your choice, HOV, bus lane, extra lanes, contraflow, reversible
Shoulder and distances Who uses the shoulder, following distance, the 50 m rule, tunnels, side clearance
Speed Limits by road and vehicle, appropriate speed, minimum and abnormally low speed
Priority Signs, priority to the right and its exceptions, narrow sections, pedestrians, cyclists, emergency vehicles, trains

Vehicles: every name comes with a rule

For the DGT, "car" or "bike" is not precise enough: the category decides speed, lane and paperwork. The definitions that come up most:

  • Moped (ciclomotor): at most 50 cc and 45 km/h. It must meet both limits; exceed either one and it is a motorcycle. It needs an AM licence from age 15 and never goes above 45 km/h, not even to overtake.
  • Personal mobility vehicle (VMP), i.e. an e-scooter: 6 to 25 km/h, minimum age 15, helmet for everyone, one rider only, and banned from through-roads. Anyone using one for work wears a hi-vis vest at all times. Skates and skateboards without a motor are not vehicles; they count as toys.
  • Pedal-assisted bicycle: the motor only helps and cuts out at 25 km/h. If it accelerates without pedalling or goes above 250 W, it is no longer a bicycle.
  • Quadricycle: a light one does 45 km/h, a non-light one 70. That single word decides it.
  • Light trailer: up to 750 kg maximum authorised mass, 750 included. At 751 kg it is heavy and needs its own ITV, registration document and number plate.
  • Bus: more than 9 seats including the driver's. Up to 9 it is still a car or van.
  • Motor vehicle (vehículo de motor) does not mean everything with an engine: mopeds, trams, e-bikes and e-scooters are excluded.
turismo Car Up to 9 seats including the driver. 120 on a motorway, 90 on an ordinary road.
ciclomotor Moped 50 cc and 45 km/h at most. Exceed either one and it is a motorcycle.
VMP E-scooter From age 15, helmet always, no passengers, never on through-roads.
remolque Trailer Up to 750 kg it is light. With any trailer, a car drops to 90 on a motorway.

Driver or pedestrian? What makes you a driver is controlling the vehicle, not holding a licence. Someone pushing a bicycle or a moped on foot is a pedestrian; someone dragging a motorcycle is still a driver. The exam swaps a single word to catch you out.

The road: carriageway, shoulder and types of road

The carriageway (calzada) is the part used by vehicles and it does not include the hard shoulders. Carriageway plus shoulders make up the platform (plataforma). This is the most common mix-up in the topic.

  • Urban road: inside a built-up area. Through-road (travesía): a stretch of an interurban road that runs through a town. Urban rules apply (50 km/h, any convenient lane), but e-scooters are not allowed on it. If there is a bypass you can take, that stretch is no longer a travesía.
  • Motorway (autopista): no access from adjoining properties and no level junctions. Dual carriageway (autovía): similar, but limited access is allowed.
  • Ordinary road (carretera convencional): any road without a motorway, dual carriageway or "road for motor vehicles" sign. If you see none of those signs in the photo, you are on an ordinary road.
  • Split roundabout: if two opposite roads are joined straight across the central island, it is not a roundabout; you treat it as an ordinary junction.
arcén Hard shoulder The strip beside the carriageway; not part of it.
mediana Central reservation Separates the two directions on motorways and dual carriageways.
isleta Traffic island An area you must not drive on; it channels traffic at junctions and exits.
glorieta Roundabout Driven anticlockwise.

Only vehicles able to hold 60 km/h on the flat may use motorways and dual carriageways. Pedestrians, animals, horse-drawn carts, bicycles, mopeds, mobility vehicles for disabled people and e-scooters are banned. The one exception: cyclists over 14 may ride on the shoulder of a dual carriageway unless a sign forbids it; on a motorway, never. If an answer says a ban applies to one type of road but not the other, it is a trap: it applies to both. A motorway that enters a town is still a motorway: right-hand lane, and 80 km/h unless signs say otherwise.

Lanes: keep right outside towns, choose freely inside

Outside built-up areas you drive in the right-hand lane and use the lanes to the left for overtaking. Once you have overtaken, move back right as soon as you can. "I'm not holding anyone up, so I can stay left" is the classic wrong answer of this topic.

With three or more lanes in each direction, lorries over 3,500 kg and vehicle combinations over 7 m long may only use the right-hand lane and the one next to it. In town, where lanes are marked, you may use whichever lane suits your route best. With no lane markings, the keep-right rule applies again.

Outside towns, keep right Yellow overtakes the lorry and moves back. Red stays left without overtaking: an offence.
Lorries: two lanes only Over 3,500 kg or combinations over 7 m use only the right lane and the next one. Red, in the third lane, is breaking the rule.
In town, the lane that suits you Three marked lanes: each car positions itself for where it will turn. All three are right.

Other situations that come up:

  • No lane markings: each direction keeps close to its right-hand edge. "In the middle, because there are no lines" is wrong.
  • Three lanes for two directions: right lane for driving, middle lane for overtaking or turning left, left lane never.
  • Traffic island: on a two-way road, pass it on the right only; on a one-way road, on either side.
  • Roundabout: traffic already on it has priority. Leave from the outer lane; whoever exits from the inner lane cutting across someone is at fault.
  • Bus lane: with a solid line it is for buses only. You never overtake in it.
  • HOV lane (carril VAO): cars and motorcycles without trailers carrying the minimum number of people. Mopeds and anything towing a trailer, never. "Zero emissions" labelled vehicles may always enter; ECO only if the panel allows it.
  • Extra lane and contraflow lane: 60 to 80 km/h and dipped headlights, day and night, for everyone on that road. A reversible lane does not have those limits.
Three lanes, two directions Right for driving, middle for overtaking or turning left, the left one belongs to oncoming traffic.
Leaving a roundabout Blue exits from the outer lane and has priority. Red cuts across from the inner lane and is at fault.
Extra lane behind cones Everyone on dipped beam, even by day, between 60 and 80 km/h, without crossing the cones.

Hard shoulder, following distances and traffic jams

Outside built-up areas, bicycles, mopeds, mobility vehicles for disabled people, horse-drawn carts and special vehicles up to 3,500 kg must use the right-hand shoulder when it is usable. If it is not usable or not wide enough, they ride on the carriageway, keeping right. Only two bicycles may ride side by side; since RD 518/2026 mopeds may not. Shoulder users may overtake each other if they are alongside for no more than 15 seconds or 200 metres.

The shoulder is not an extra lane: you may not use it to reach an exit sooner or to "keep traffic flowing". If a breakdown forces you to drive abnormally slowly, you use the right-hand shoulder with hazard lights on until the first exit. Motorcycles may only use it in a jam on signed sections, with the lanes stopped, at no more than 30 km/h.

Who uses the shoulder Bicycle, moped and a tractor under 3,500 kg on the shoulder. Cars and lorries on the carriageway.
Side by side: two bikes only Two cyclists together on the shoulder is fine. Three abreast is an offence.
Jams: the shoulder is not a lane Even with the exit close, you wait in your lane. Red, driving along the shoulder, is breaking the rules.
50 m
Heavy or long vehicles

Vehicles over 3,500 kg or over 10 m long leave 50 m to the one in front on single-lane-each-way roads, so others can overtake them.

In the test: a 3,000 kg lorry is not covered, and the rule does not apply on motorways.

100 m · 4 s
Tunnel, up to 3,500 kg

Minimum gap in tunnels and underpasses for cars, motorcycles and vans.

In the test: a lorry under 3,500 kg also keeps 100 m, not 150.

150 m · 6 s
Tunnel, over 3,500 kg

The same rule for heavy vehicles.

In the test: what counts is the maximum authorised mass, not the word "lorry".

1.5 m
Overtaking vulnerable users

Minimum side gap when overtaking cyclists, mopeds or pedestrians outside towns.

In the test: when meeting oncoming traffic there is no figure: just enough clearance.

The safe following distance has no fixed number of metres: it is whatever lets you stop without hitting the vehicle ahead if it brakes suddenly, and it grows with speed. You may not shorten it even while preparing to overtake. In a jam on a motorway or dual carriageway you open an emergency corridor before you hear a siren: with two lanes, in the middle; with three or more, between the left lane and the next, so drivers in the middle lane move right. When snow makes driving difficult, overtaking is banned and everyone keeps to the right-hand lane (plus the next one if there are three or more).

Following distance The yellow gap: no fixed metres, it grows with speed.
Room to be overtaken Blue is not overtaking the lorry and leaves space for yellow to pull back in.
Snow on a dual carriageway Everyone keeps right and nobody overtakes. The left lanes stay clear for snowploughs and emergency services.

All of topic 1, one short lesson at a time

118 short lessons in Skilyapp: an everyday situation, 2 to 4 slides with diagrams and 1 or 2 DGT questions with the answer explained.

Open topic 1 Included in Premium · 3 days free

Speed: the limits and appropriate speed

Vehicle Motorway and dual carriageway Ordinary road
Car, motorcycle, motorhome up to 3,500 kg, pick-up 120 km/h 90 km/h
Bus, car-derived van, convertible mixed-use vehicle 100 km/h 90 km/h
Lorry, van, motorhome over 3,500 kg, articulated vehicle, anything towing a trailer 90 km/h 80 km/h
Bus with standing passengers or without seat belts 80 km/h 80 km/h

For slow vehicles the ladder is 25 – 40 – 45 – 70: 25 for a tractor with a trailer and for e-scooters, 40 for special vehicles in general, 45 for mopeds and light quadricycles, 70 for three-wheeled vehicles and non-light quadricycles. On an unpaved road, 30 km/h. Any car towing a trailer, even a light one, joins the lorry group.

A limit is a maximum, not a target. Appropriate speed is a speed that lets you stop within the distance you can see is clear, taking into account your own condition, the road, the weather and the traffic. That is why 120 km/h on a motorway in heavy rain is inappropriate, even though it is legal. Going too slowly is not allowed either: below the minimum, without a good reason, you are driving at an abnormally low speed. Dense fog is a good reason; a breakdown does not let you carry on like that to your destination: you must leave at the first exit.

To warn that you are about to slow down or stop, flash your brake lights several times or move your arm up and down.

Priority: who goes first

Giving way means the other road user does not have to brake or swerve because of you; "they have seen me" is not enough. Even when you have priority, do not enter a junction if you know you will end up stuck inside it.

How to work out a junction:

  1. Police officers first, then traffic lights, then signs. If there are signs, they decide.
  2. No signs: give way to the right. The same applies when the traffic lights are off.
  3. Exceptions to the right-hand rule: a paved road over an unpaved one, traffic on a roundabout over traffic entering, traffic on a motorway or dual carriageway over traffic joining, vehicles on rails, and traffic on a public road over vehicles coming out of a petrol station, garage or car park.
No signs: the right goes first All three go straight on. Red has nobody on its right and goes first, then yellow, and blue goes last.
Tarmac beats dirt White comes out of a dirt track on red's right, and still has to give way.
On a roundabout, those already on it Red is already on the roundabout; blue, about to enter, waits.

On narrow sections, signs decide: with R-5 you give way to oncoming traffic; with R-6 you have priority. Without signs, the vehicle that would find reversing harder goes first (bigger, longer, harder to handle). On a slope of at least 7 %, the vehicle going uphill goes first, not the one coming down.

R-5: you give way With this sign on your side, you wait or reverse: oncoming traffic has priority.
R-6: you go first With this sign on your side you have priority; the vehicle opposite, facing R-5, waits.

Other priority cases:

  • Pedestrians go first on zebra crossings, when you turn and they are crossing the street you are entering, and when you drive across their space (pavement, shoulder). In shared-level streets, since RD 518/2026, they have priority anywhere on the carriageway.
  • Cyclists riding in a group count as one vehicle: if the first one is already on the roundabout, you wait until the last one has passed.
  • Animals only have priority on signed drove roads (cañadas). The P-23 warning sign only warns.
  • Emergency vehicles have priority when on an urgent call with flashing lights, with or without a siren. Move to the right and stop if necessary. Your own car in a medical emergency has no priority: you may use the horn and hazard lights, but you may not run red lights.
  • Trams and trains go first wherever they come from. With the barrier down or moving, you do not enter the level crossing: you wait in line in your lane.
Turning across pedestrians Turning right, pedestrians crossing the street you enter go first, even without a zebra crossing.
A group of cyclists The first rider is already on the roundabout: blue lets the whole group through, not just the first one.
Level crossing closed Barrier down or moving: do not enter. Wait in your lane, one behind the other.

Pedestrians on roads without a footway walk on the left, facing the traffic; since RD 518/2026 this applies in towns too. Those pushing a bicycle, a two-wheeled moped or an e-scooter, and groups led by an adult, walk on the right. At night or in poor visibility they must carry something lit or reflective that is visible from 150 m.

Trick answers in topic 1

What sounds logical What the exam wants
A moped may go over 45 to overtake Never above 45 km/h
If I'm not holding anyone up I can stay in the left lane Outside towns, the right lane if it is free
49 cc is always a moped If it does more than 45 km/h, it is a motorcycle
The carriageway includes the shoulders No: carriageway + shoulders = platform
With a light trailer a car can still do 120 Any trailer: 90 on motorways, 80 on ordinary roads
The motorway minimum is half of 120 It is 60 km/h for everyone
With priority I can enter a junction even if I get stuck No: wait outside so you don't block it
The P-23 sign gives animals priority Only signed drove roads do
On a narrow slope the vehicle going down goes first The one going up goes first
With three lanes the emergency corridor is in the middle Between the left lane and the middle one; the middle lane moves right

Mini quiz: 8 real exam questions

These are official DGT questions on topic 1, translated from the Spanish. Pick an answer to see whether you got it and why.

Question 1 / 8

What is the maximum speed allowed on a dual carriageway for a motorhome with a maximum authorised mass under 3,500 kg?

Question 2 / 8

On a road, which vehicles must keep a minimum gap of 50 metres?

Question 3 / 8

Snow is making driving difficult on a dual carriageway with two lanes in each direction. Which rule applies?

Question 4 / 8

Motorway with three lanes in each direction, traffic at a standstill. You are in the middle lane. Which way should you move?

Question 5 / 8

On a road with a general speed limit of 90 km/h, what counts as an abnormally low speed for a car?

Question 6 / 8

Animals have priority over vehicles...

Question 7 / 8

Drivers arriving at a closed level crossing must...

Question 8 / 8

You are driving a car on a dual carriageway in very heavy traffic. May you drive on the hard shoulder to reach the next exit?

How to learn topic 1

This topic is long because it is really a dictionary. Once you know what kind of vehicle you are looking at and what kind of road you are on, half of the speed, lane and priority questions answer themselves. Start by identifying the road in the photo (is there a dual carriageway sign? are you in town?) and the vehicle; then apply the rule.

The numbers from every topic are collected in the DGT exam cheat sheet, and reaction times and braking distances are covered in the topic 7 summary.

Study topic 1 with diagrams and DGT questions

Each lesson takes a few minutes and ends with real exam questions, answers explained. Learn at your own pace on your phone.

Start topic 1 Included in Premium · 3 days free

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Frequently asked questions
¿Cuál es la velocidad máxima de un turismo en carretera convencional? +

90 km/h. Solo puede ser 100 km/h si la carretera tiene los sentidos separados físicamente y una señal lo permite. En autopista y autovía, 120 km/h.

¿Se puede superar el límite en 20 km/h para adelantar? +

No. Ese margen ya no existe: el límite de la vía vale también durante el adelantamiento.

¿Qué diferencia hay entre ciclomotor y motocicleta? +

El ciclomotor no supera 50 cm³ ni 45 km/h; tiene que cumplir los dos límites. Si supera uno de ellos, es una motocicleta.

¿Por qué carril se circula fuera de poblado? +

Por el carril derecho. Los de la izquierda son para adelantar, y al terminar hay que volver a la derecha en cuanto se pueda. Dentro de poblado, con carriles marcados, se puede usar el que más convenga.

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